French former doctor at the Bayonne hospital Nicolas Bonnemaison (C), flanked by his wife Julie (L) and his lawyers Benoit Ducos-Ader (C, second ground) and Arnaud Dupin (R), leaves the courthouse of Pau, southwestern France, after been acquitted on June 25, 2014 (AFP Photo / Gaizka Iroz) / AFP

French emergency physician, Nicolas Bonnemaison, who faced life in prison, has been acquitted of poisoning charges after he helped seven terminally ill patients to die.

The doctor’s lawyer, Benoit Ducos-Ader, said that the decision
was "huge" and added that he hoped the move would be
significant in the debate in France on legalizing euthanasia.
During the trial, he urged the jurors to “accelerate the
history” of legislation.

The trial was very emotional, with relatives of several patients
testifying in court in the doctor’s defense. Bonnemaison himself
spoke out during his six-minute final speech, saying that it
“is part of the duty of the physician to accompany patients
through to the end.”

The jurors answered all 14 questions negatively, thus clearing
Bonnemaison of all charges, according to Le Monde.
The lawyers called the emergency doctor to “put his white
coat back on again.”

Following the announcement of the verdict, taken after four hours
of deliberation, the room cheered, while Bonnemaison stood
smiling, hand in hand with his lawyer, AFP reported.

The 53-year-old doctor appeared in court over the deaths of seven
terminally ill patients back in 2010-11, and he admitted
culpability.

“They haunt me day and night,” Bonnemaison said three
years ago.

On Tuesday, the Advocate General had asked for a suspended
sentence of five years, considering that the accused “had
acted sincerely.”

Euthanasia is currently legal in Netherlands, Belgium and
Luxembourg, but not in France. A 2005 law by Jean Leonetti
prohibits assisted suicide, but grey areas remain in the law
regarding the more passive euthanasia forms. Part of François
Hollande’s presidential platform was a pledge to introduce new
right-to-die legislation.

The Bonnemaison trial gave an opportunity to question Leonetti’s
law on the end of life. Leonetti, who represents the center-right
UMP party at the National Assembly, was at the trial last week.

"Nobody wants to see Dr. Bonnemaison in prison. I said in
court that, in my eyes, he was not a murderer. I see that these
words were echoed by the prosecutor. It does mean that we are
sympathetic towards him," he said on France Inter on Tuesday
morning.

"At the same time, let us ask the question: are we going to
give the doctors the right to administer death to patients who
have not requested it - without discussing it with anyone?
<…> Could the power of life and death be given to medicine
that is already very powerful?” he added.

The court’s ruling follows the decision of the European Court of
Human Rights to continue the life of Vincent Lambert, a
quadriplegic in a vegetative state for six years and whose
relatives can’t decide his fate. A day before that, France's top
administrative court had ordered an end to the comatose man’s
treatment.

Meanwhile, in the UK, the Supreme Court upheld the ban on
assisted suicide on Wednesday. Still the judges ruled that the
current law is incompatible with human rights legislation, which
means it may soon be up for legal debate.